John Robertson (footballer, born 1964)

For other people with the same name, see John Robertson.

John Robertson

Personal information
Full name	John Grant Robertson[1]
Date of birth	(1964-10-02) 2 October 1964 (age 59)
Place of birth	Edinburgh, Scotland
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
	Salvesen Boys Club
	Edina Hibs
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1981–1988	Heart of Midlothian	203	(106)
1988	Newcastle United	12	(0)
1988–1998	Heart of Midlothian	310	(108)
1998	→ Dundee (loan)	4	(1)
1998–2000	Livingston	41	(14)
Total		570	(229)
International career
1984–1987[2]	Scotland U21	6	(0)
1990–1996[3]	Scotland B	3	(0)
1990[4]	SFA (SFL centenary)	1	(0)
1990–1995	Scotland	16	(3)
Managerial career
2002–2004	Inverness Caledonian Thistle
2004–2005	Heart of Midlothian
2005	Ross County
2006–2007	Livingston
2007	Derry City
2010–2012	East Fife
2017–2021	Inverness Caledonian Thistle
2023	Inverness Caledonian Thistle (interim)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

John Grant Robertson (born 2 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. His playing career included spells at Newcastle United, Dundee and Livingston, but he is best known for his two spells at Heart of Midlothian totalling about 18 years, where he is the club's all-time leading goalscorer. He has since managed Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Heart of Midlothian, Ross County, Livingston, Derry City and East Fife.

Playing career

Hibernian attempted to sign Robertson as a teenager but he asked for time to think the deal over; after Hibs refused, he signed for Heart of Midlothian along with school friend and fellow future internationalist Dave Bowman. Robertson eventually earned the moniker "The Hammer of Hibs" (in addition to his more standard nickname "Robbo") as he scored a record 27 goals in Edinburgh derby matches.^[5] In 1986, 20 league goals from Robertson helped Hearts to the brink of a league and cup double. A 27 league game unbeaten run ended with two Albert Kidd goals for Dundee in the last six minutes of the season allowing Celtic to overtake them to win the title. A week later, Hearts lost 3–0 to Aberdeen in the cup final.^[6] He scored 106 goals in 202 Hearts league games in this spell at Tynecastle Park.

He left Hearts to play for Newcastle United in April 1988. Robertson failed to score in 14 Newcastle competitive first team games and returned to Hearts in December of that year, and remained there for the next decade. In 1998 Hearts won the Scottish Cup with Robertson an unused substitute, earning him his only senior medal as a player. In this second spell at Hearts he scored at a much less prolific rate compared to his first spell, with this time 106 goals in 310 league games. After an earlier loan spell with Dundee scoring once in 4 league games, he left Tynecastle that summer. He joined Livingston as a player-coach, scoring 14 goals in 41 league games.

Robertson was also a Scottish international, playing on 16 occasions for Scotland. He made his debut against Romania in 1990, scoring in a 2–1 win. He missed out on selection for the UEFA Euro 1992 due to a hernia injury.^[7]

Coaching career

Inverness Caledonian Thistle (first spell)

Whilst playing for Livingston, Robertson became involved in the coaching side of the game.^[8] He left the club in season 2002–03 to become manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle where he guided the Highland team to the SPL for the first time in their history.

Heart of Midlothian manager

In November 2004 he returned to Hearts as head coach and despite two cup semi-finals and a good season in Europe as well as finishing fifth in the league, he was sacked in May 2005.

Ross County and Livingston

Robertson was appointed manager of Scottish First Division team Ross County in June 2005, but left by mutual consent after four months.^[8] He was then appointed manager of Livingston in February 2006,^[8] but was sacked in April 2007 after finishing sixth in the First Division.

Derry City

Robertson was appointed by League of Ireland side Derry City in July 2007. He took club out of the relegation battle to a safe mid table position and also won the FAI League Cup and qualified for the Setanta Cup before being dismissed by the new chairman and board of directors at Derry, and replaced by former Derry boss Stephen Kenny.^[9] In 2009, Robertson coached strikers at Scottish Premier League clubs Dundee United and Kilmarnock. In March 2010, Robertson helped coach the strikers at Hearts on a non-contract basis.

East Fife

Robertson was appointed manager of East Fife in October 2010. In September 2011, his East Fife side knocked SPL club Aberdeen out of the Scottish League Cup at Pittodrie Stadium. On 1 March 2012 it was announced that Robertson had left East Fife.^[10]

Inverness Caledonian Thistle (second spell)

In June 2017, Robertson returned to Inverness Caledonian Thistle as manager.^[11][12] On 24 March 2018, the club won the Scottish Challenge Cup. In the 2018/19 season, Inverness qualified for the promotion playoffs but were beaten in the semi-finals by Dundee United.^[13] Dundee then made an approach for Robertson, but this was rejected by Inverness.^[13] Inverness finished second in the 2019–20 Scottish Championship, which was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic.^[14]

In June 2020, his contract with Inverness was extended by two years.^[14] Robertson was placed on compassionate leave in February 2021, with Neil McCann given caretaker charge of the team in his absence.^[15] Robertson returned to Inverness in May 2021 as sporting director, with a new manager to be appointed (Billy Dodds).^[16] Dodds was sacked in September 2023, and Robertson was placed in caretaker charge of the Inverness first team until Duncan Ferguson was appointed later that month.^[17][18]

Career statistics

Club

^{[19][20][21][22][23]}

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Scotland			League		Scottish Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1981–82	Heart of Midlothian	First Division	1	0	0	0	0	0	–	–	1	0
1982–83			23	21	3	0	2	0	–	–	28	21
1983–84		Premier Division	35	15	2	1	7	4	–	–	44	20
1984–85			33	8	5	2	5	1	2	2	45	13
1985–86			35	20	5	4	3	1	–	–	43	25
1986–87			37	16	6	2	1	0	2	1	46	19
1987–88			39	26	4	2	3	3	–	–	46	31
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1988–89	Newcastle United	First Division	12	0	–	–	2	0	–	–	14	0
Scotland			League		Scottish Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1988–89	Heart of Midlothian	Premier Division	15	4	3	0	0	0	1	0	19	4
1989–90			32	17	3	4	1	1	0	0	36	22
1990–91			31	12	1	0	3	1	3	3	38	16
1991–92			42	14	6	4	3	2	0	0	51	20
1992–93			42	11	4	3	3	1	4	0	53	15
1993–94			36	8	3	1	2	2	2	1	43	12
1994–95			31	10	5	3	2	1	0	0	38	14
1995–96			33	12	5	1	2	1	0	0	40	14
1996–97			27	14	3	2	5	3	1	0	36	19
1997–98			21	6	2	0	2	0	0	0	25	6
1997–98	Dundee	First Division	4	1	0	0	0	0	–	–	4	1
1998–99	Livingston	Second Division	36	13	5	2	3	1	–	–	44	16
1999–00		First Division	5	1	1	0	0	0	–	–	6	1
Total	Scotland		558	229	66	31	47	22	15	7	686	289
	England		12	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	14	0
Career total			570	229	66	31	49	22	15	7	700	289

International appearances

Scotland national team[24]
Year	Apps	Goals
1990	2	2
1991	3	0
1992	3	0
1993	3	0
1995	5	1
Total	16	3

International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	12 September 1990	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Romania	1–1	2–1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
2	17 October 1990	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Switzerland	1–0	2–1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
3	24 May 1995	Toyama Park Stadium, Toyama	Ecuador	1–0	2–1	Kirin Cup

Managerial record

As of match played 23 September 2023^[25]

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Inverness Caledonian Thistle		26 December 2002	3 November 2004	84	44	13	27	052.38
Heart of Midlothian		3 November 2004	9 May 2005	35	13	9	13	037.14
Ross County		21 June 2005	24 October 2005	15	6	5	4	040.00
Livingston		15 February 2006	15 April 2007	51	15	10	26	029.41
Derry City		2 July 2007	11 December 2007	24	8	8	8	033.33
East Fife		26 October 2010	1 March 2012	62	28	11	23	045.16
Inverness Caledonian Thistle		14 June 2017	13 May 2021	155	70	42	43	045.16
Inverness Caledonian Thistle (interim)		17 September 2023	26 September 2023	1	0	0	1	000.00
Career total				427	184	98	145	043.09

Honours

Player

Heart of Midlothian

• Scottish Premier Division:
  • Runner–up 1985–86, 1987–88, 1991–92
• Scottish First Division:
  • Promoted 1982–83
• Scottish Cup: 1997–98
  • Runner–up 1985–86, 1995–96
• Scottish League Cup:
  • Runner–up 1996–97
• Tennents' Sixes: 1985, 1991^[26]
  • Runner–up 1987^[27]

Livingston

• Scottish Second Division: 1998–99

Scotland U16

• Victory Shield: 1979–80^[28]
• Dentyne Trophy: 1980^[28]

Individual

• SPFA Young Player of the Year: 1983–84
• Scottish Premier Division Top Scorer: 1989–90
• Heart of Midlothian Hall of Fame inductee: 2006^[29]
• Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductee: 2019^[30]

Manager

Livingston Reserves

• SFL Reserve West: 2000–01^[31]
• SFL Reserve Cup: 1998–99, 2000–01^[31]

Inverness Caledonian Thistle

• Scottish First Division: 2003–04
  • Runner–up 2019–20
• Scottish Challenge Cup: 2003–04, 2017–18, 2019–20^{[note 1][32]}

Derry City

• League of Ireland Cup: 2007

Individual

• SFL First Division Manager of the Year: 2003–04^[33]
• SFL Second Division Manager of Month: November 2010, October 2011^[34]
• SPFL Championship Manager of Month: October 2017, March 2019

Notes

1. ICT and Raith Rovers were declared joint-winners on 30 April 2021. The final was originally withheld due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Robertson was the manager when the team reached the final and was still the permanent manager at the time of announcement, albeit Robertson was on compassionate leave at the time.

See also

• List of footballers in Scotland by number of league appearances (500+)
• List of footballers in Scotland by number of league goals (200+)

References

1. "John Robertson". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
2. Scotland U21 player Robertson, John, FitbaStats
3. Scotland B player Robertson, John, FitbaStats
4. On this day, back in 1990, a Scottish League XI beat Scotland 1-0 at Hampden Park in the SFL Centenary match with the goal coming from then Aberdeen Football Club star Hans Gillhaus, Scottish Professional Football League via Facebook, 18 August 2016
5. "Heart of Midlothian VS Hibernian". FIFA. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
6. Pye, Steven (1 May 2015). "How Albert Kidd became a Hibs and Celtic legend without playing for them". The Guardian.
7. Smith, Aidan (13 April 2019). "Interview: John Robertson on plotting the downfall of Craig Levein". The Scotsman. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
8. "Robertson named Livingston boss". BBC Sport. 15 February 2006. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
9. "Derry sack Robertson". Retrieved 11 December 2007.
10. "John Robertson". Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
11. Healey, Derek (14 June 2017). "John Robertson returns as Caley Jags boss 13 years after securing top flight promotion". The Press and Journal. DC Thomson & Co Ltd. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
12. "John Robertson returns as Inverness Caley Thistle manager". BBC Sport. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
13. MacBeath, Amy (21 May 2019). "Dundee refused permission to speak to Inverness CT boss John Robertson". Retrieved 21 May 2019.
14. "John Robertson: Inverness CT manager extends contract until 2023". BBC Sport. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
15. "Neil McCann to take charge at Inverness while John Robertson is on compassionate leave". Sky Sports. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
16. Coyle, Andy (13 May 2021). "Inverness appoint Robertson as club's first sporting director". STV Sport. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
17. "Inverness Caledonian Thistle: Billy Dodds and Barry Wilson sacked as club search for new head coach". BBC Sport. 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
18. "Duncan Ferguson: Inverness Caledonian Thistle chose former Scotland striker as manager". BBC Sport. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
19. "John Robertson". London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
20. "Dundee – 1997/98". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
21. "Livingston – 1998/99". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
22. "Livingston – 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
23. "Newcastle United – 1988-89 season". 11v11. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
24. John Robertson at the Scottish Football Association
25. "John Robertson's managerial career". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
26. "Hearts win sixes". The Scotsman. 22 January 1985. Retrieved 9 April 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
27. "Hearts clash gets green light". Aberdeen Evening Express. 20 January 1987. Retrieved 9 April 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
28. "1980: England 4 v 5 Scotland, Schoolboys". Football Experience. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
    "Benchman: When Scotland won at Wembley 5-4". Falkirk Herald. 20 August 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
29. "Heart of Midlothian Hall of Fame". Heart of Midlothian FC. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
30. "Six former players added to Scotltish football's hall of fame". BBC Sport. 27 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
31. "Robertson on steep learning curve at Inverness". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
32. "Inverness Caledonian Thistle And Raith Rovers Announced As Joint Winners of Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Cup". Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC. 30 April 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
33. "Bell's Monthly Awards for August, 2005". SPFL. 14 September 2005. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
34. "IRN BRU SFL Phenomenal Monthly Awards". SPFL. 19 December 2010. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
    "Irn-Bru Phenomenal awards for November 2010". SPFL. 24 December 2010. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
    "IRN-BRU SFL Phenomenal Awards – October 2011". SPFL. 18 November 2011. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2021.

External links

• John Robertson management career statistics at Soccerbase
• John Robertson at Soccerbase
• Hearts playing career stats Archived 4 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine at londonhearts.com